The story of two not-so-new-anymore dog owners and an extremely cute (new to the city of Toronto) beagle named Duke.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Duke's Foundation Work - Class 2 at All About Dogs

Today was Duke's 2nd time at Beginner's Agility class at All About Dogs. I am happy to say that he did much better. The teacher allowed us to work at a distance from the dogs. We did the following things to get him ready for today:

- No breakfast- 40 minutes of vigorous fetch at the park prior to class (he was tired and he was sluggish in class, but his focus was solid)- Foundation work leading up to today - at the risk of any cues being poisoned, we introduced a new cue called "mi-te" which is Japanese for "look" for a focus/watch cue.- Taking a page from Emily Larham (kikopup) on Youtube - we had a variety of food today such as smoked turkey, roasted chicken, aged cheddar, and bread.- Got to class 20 minutes early to allow for a 10 minute walk outside and 10 minutes of attention work in the class prior to all the dogs arriving

The work we did today was:

- Down stay on a mat, eyes locked on handler, click at a distance, treat in place- Turn left, Turn right- Sit Pretty work- Perch work (rotate hind leg awareness)- Call to heel position from down stay- Heel crossovers (cross from right to left)- Playing with the equipment- Play bow

Homework is all of the above!

GREAT JOB DUKE! AND AMAZING JOB HYEDIE!!!! (i just sat back and watched class unfold and took mental notes about Renee's teaching approach as well as the instructions she gave everyone, including us)